WEC 41 prelims: Manny Gamburyan's WEC featherweight debut a success

SACRAMENTO, Calif. – At just 5-foot-5 Manny Gamburyan spent two years proving the doubters wrong by hanging with some of the world’s top lightweights in the world’s top fight promotion.

However, after finally dropping a weight class to fight the world’s top featherweights, Gamburyan was forced to move from the UFC to the WEC, where on Sunday’s “WEC 41: Brown vs. Faber II” card, he defeated the previously unbeaten John Franchi via unanimous decision.

The fight bout was the featured attraction on the un-aired WEC 41 preliminary card, which took place at ARCO Arena in Sacramento, Calif.

Gamburyan (9-4 MMA, 1-0 WEC), the runner-up to show winner Nate Diaz on the fifth season of “The Ultimate Fighter,” went 2-3 in the UFC before he decided to take the plunge to featherweight. He faced a stern test in Franchi (5-1 MMA, 1-1 WEC), but Gamburyan controlled all three rounds of action standing and on the mat to pick up a unaninous decision victory. All three judges scored the bout 30-27 in his favor.

“This is my new home,” Gamburyan said of the WEC. “I’m only going to get better. I can only get better.”

While short in stature, Gamburyan admitted the cut to 145 pounds – something the 28-year-old fighter hadn’t done in a decade – wasn’t as easy as many people predicted.

“It was not easy,” he said. “I walk around at about 165 pounds. Twenty pounds was not easy.”

The victory, Gamburyan’s first in 14 months, snaps a two-fight losing streak and instantly puts the Armenian fighter in a very crowded title picture in the WEC’s star-studded featherweight division.

After dishing out four consecutive stoppage victories in a combined five minutes, Kyle Dietz (5-1 MMA, 0-1 WEC) was on the receiving end during his WEC debut with fellow bantamweight Rafael Rebello (6-3 MMA, 1-1 WEC).

Rebello attempted a guillotine choke early but eventually took his opponent’s back and patiently and methodically worked until he locked in the fight-ending rear-naked choke. The stoppage came at 2:55 of the opening round.

With the victory, Rebello picks up his first WEC win and moves to 5-1 with five stoppage victories in his past six fights.

“I train with the best guys in the world (at) American Top Team,” Rebello said. “This victory is for everyone who believed in me.”

In a swift and action-packed lightweight bout, Athony Pettis (7-0 MMA, 1-0 WEC) made a successful WEC debut and kept his undefeated record intact with a first-round submission victory over Mike Campbell (4-2 MMA, 0-2 WEC).

After being put on his back early in the bout, Pettis fired off guillotine and armbar attempts. However, when Campbell dove in to unleash some ground and pound, Pettis trapped him in an eventual fight-ending triangle choke at 1:49 of the first round.

Pettis now owns six stoppages in his seven career victories. All six have come in the first round with five in less than two minutes’ time.

“I can’t even explain how I feel right now,” he said. “He’s strong. He picked me up and slammed me down, but I was able to get the triangle. I ain’t losing.”

Led to the cage with Chuck Liddell and trainer John Hackleman, Banuelos kept a frantic pace to the fight throughout its 15-minute duration. He clearly took the first round, Jorgensen took the third with a flurry of submission attempts, and for the judges, it came down to a close second round. Two of the three scored it in favor of Banuelos, who earned the decision victory with scores of 29-28, 28-29 and 29-28.

“I wanted to stay away from his choke,” said Banuelos, who was met with a mix of cheers and boos after the decision was read. “His hands surprised me a little. I hope it was ‘Fight of the Night.’ I wanted to put on a good show for everyone.”

Despite facing a late replacement who entered the bout with a seven-fight winning streak, Frank Gomez (7-1 MMA, 1-1 WEC) easily disposed of late replacement Noah Thomas (13-5 MMA, 0-1 WEC) and rebounded from his first career loss with a dominating performance.

Gomez, who was originally slated to fight Eddie Wineland, closed out the first round with a brutal ground-and-pound assault that left Thomas, who returned to Zuffa for the first time since he was kicked off “The Ultimate Fighter 5″ for a backyard brawl with Marlon Sims, with a deep gash on his forehead. The damage continued in the second round until Gomez forced a tapout via arm-triangle choke at the 3:12 mark.

“I felt like if I put the pressure on him, I could break him,” he said. “I was looking for his strengths and defending his submissions. Once I did that, I knew I’d be able to get my strikes in.”

In the day’s opening bout, Seth Dikun (7-3 MMA, 1-1 WEC) proved that persistence pays off and picked up his first career WEC victory by submitting fellow bantamweight Rolando Perez (4-3-1 MMA, 0-2 WEC) midway through the first round. Dikum pulled guard and almost seamlessly locked in a triangle choke before spending nearly a minute getting the position he needed to force the eventual tapout at 2:30 of the opening round.

“My corner and I just went over it two, three weeks ago,” Dikum said of the submission. “I hit it in sparring, and I knew I could do it.”

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